A Chinese robotics startup focused on "physical AI" has joined the swelling ranks of richly valued embodied-AI companies.
According to a PR Newswire announcement, X Square Robot has surpassed a US$2.8 billion valuation after closing four consecutive financing rounds. The company said the new money will support its development of embodied AI foundation models, commercial deployments, and integrated robotics infrastructure. The announcement, also carried by outlets including the Korea Herald and Yonhap, described X Square Robot as the only embodied AI company with a particular backing distinction (the source text was truncated on that point).
Bloomberg, as relayed by Techmeme, put the figure slightly higher, reporting that Alibaba-backed X Square Robot raised an undisclosed amount at a valuation of roughly $2.9 billion. Bloomberg framed the deal alongside a second Chinese robotics startup, AI² Robotics, which it said raised about $736 million at a similar valuation of around $2.9 billion. Bloomberg characterized the two rounds as evidence of "steady interest" in the sector.
"Embodied AI" refers to artificial intelligence built to operate in the physical world through robots, rather than living only on a screen. "Foundation models" are the large, general-purpose systems—similar in concept to the models behind chatbots—that companies hope can give robots flexible, adaptable behavior instead of narrow, hand-coded routines.
Why it matters: The back-to-back multibillion-dollar valuations signal that investors, including major players like Alibaba, are pouring money into China's race to build the AI brains for next-generation robots.